Kobewade11 wrote:AirP. wrote:Kobewade11 wrote:
There's no package not involving Jimmy or Bam that Miami could have leaked to the media to make the Portland FO or fanbase 'happy' about sending their franchise player to the team he was hellbent on forcing his way to.
A possible 3-4 firsts (getting 1-2 for Herro), Jovic and/or Jaquez and 1 or 2 swaps? I think going from getting no offers from anyone to knowing you can get 3-4 firsts from Miami might have been enough during the summer to get it done.
A large part of this is revisionist history. It was known the Heat’s tradeable assets were Lowry, Herro, Jovic, and Jaquez. A washed up PG, a guy that just missed the playoffs, and two young players who at the time were complete unknown commodities on the national scene. The consensus out of the pacific northwest was that it was a poo-poo platter.
The Bucks ended up trading... Jrue Holiday, G.Allen, 1 1st, 2 swaps for Lillard.
They then turned around and traded Jrue for 2 often injured players in Brogdon and Williams and GS 1st in 2024 (known as a bad draft for years) and a 2029 Bucks 1st.
There was also the Phoenix trade for Ayton that could have happened in a Miami trade since it was basically an Ayton/Nurkic trade
Grand total for Portland, 3 1st, 2 swaps and 2 vet often injured players in Brogdon, Williams and a Nurkic/Ayton swap.
Vs Miami's (potentially)... 3-4 1sts, 2 swaps, 1 30 million expiring contract, Miami drafting 2023 1st for Portland (Jaquez Jr, Witmore, Podziemski all on the board) and still got the Ayton/Nurkic swap.
The issue was that Miami's was lowballing because they thought they had a position of strength, only around August 1st (over a month after the draft) was it reported they possibly may up the offer (not that they had upped the offer to this)...
"I'm told the Heat have been preparing a trade package around three to four first-round draft picks, a potential draft swap as well, second-round picks, a young player potentially," Charania said.
Had Miami offered this at the very first, maybe it gets done vs Portland thinking Miami and Lillard were working together to lowball them.
If Miami wanted to have a big 3 of Butler, Bam and Lillard they could have gotten him if they really wanted him and looking at how this year played out, the ECF was probable with a real chance at the Finals with Butler and Bam finally having some proven high level offensive help in the playoffs.
This is one of the weakness' of Miami/Riley, they lean heavily on leverage as an asset and with that, miss out on high level players that were there for Miami with a fair offer.
Lillard, Robinson, Butler, Martin and Bam would have had a real shot at a top 3 finish in the East (maybe a more motivated to play Butler) and should have had success in the playoffs. The big difference with this big 3 vs say Phoenix, 2 of the big 3 were very good defenders making it easier to build the rest of the rotation vs Phoenix needing more defensive players to cover up for 2 of their big 3 with none of them being anywhere near an all-defensive player.
